Catholic voters who betrayed their faith

I've now seen some of the exit polling from the election.

Despite his extremist position on abortion, despite his support for embryonic stem cell research, despite his dispensing tax dollars to help pay for abortions, despite his support for Planned Parenthood, despite his attack on conscience rights in the form of the HHS Mandate, despite his support for so-called same sex marriage, President Obama received 50 percent of the Catholic vote while Mitt Romney received 48 percent.

Of course, that figure includes people who identified themselves as Catholics, which means it includes those who openly contradict Church teachings (like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Andrew Cuomo), and those who don't go to church or practice the faith in any active way.

On the other hand, one poll of Catholics those who go to church weekly, and thus presumably are more actively involved in the their faith, showed that those practicing Catholics supported Romney over Obama 57-42.

That's nice, but I have to wonder about those 42 percent who voted for Obama. Were they not paying attention? Do they just show up to Church out of habit, and similarly vote Democratic out of habit? Do they pick and chose church rules and still consider themselves "good Catholics?"

I can't judge their souls - that's God's job.

But I do suspect that any Catholic who voted for Obama either does not understand Catholic teachings and how they should apply to our political and daily lives, or else doesn't really care about the Catholic faith.

Pax et bonum